Broken Frontier

Archaia Studios Press (ASP) adds to its growing schedule of creator-owned books, today announcing it will publish Mouse Guard by David Petersen. The first issue is scheduled to release in February 2006 and retail for $2.95; the rest of the 6-issue series will appear bi-monthly.

To take a look at the artwork of Mouse Guard, please go to http://www.davidpetersen.net/ and click on Mouse Guard or stop by the ASP booth at this week’s Baltimore Comic-Con (Sept 17-18).

Mouse Guard is the story of a band of mice trying to survive in a hostile medieval world, to prosper among harsh conditions and vicious predators. “I first saw Mouse Guard when David approached me at Comic-Con in San Diego,” said Mark Smylie at ASP. “My jaw dropped. It has some genuinely stunning artwork. The original version was black and white, just pen and ink renditions, but David is also a fantastic colorist and for the ASP series he’s putting color into the world of Mouse Guard, adding to the masterful visuals he’d already created. When you combine his art with a wonderfully compelling story, well, I just had to be a part of publishing this book.”

In the first issue, we meet three members of the Mouse Guard on a mission to find a grain peddler who has disappeared on his journey from one protected mouse hold to another: Lieam, a young and ambitious recruit; Kenzie, the strategist, whose wisdom guides the group; and Saxon, the impatient, impulsive mouse who is always first into any fray---even if it is sometimes ill advised. Author David Petersen explains: "The mice have formed the Guard in order to patrol their borders, find safeways and paths through dangerous territories and treacherous terrain, and to keep mice safe who travel from one hidden mouse village to another. They do so with fearless dedication so that they might not just exist, but truly live."

Mouse Guard has already received advance praise. Mark A. Messler, Author of the Pulitzer-nominated novella “Zeyde and the Hidden Mine”, said: “[David’s ability to give personality and expression to these characters shows true artistic talent. I have not found a book that I would recommend as highly as this one since Art Spiegelman’s Maus.

Mouse Guard adds to the expanding line of creator-owned titles being published through ASP. Already on the schedule are: The Lone and Level Sands (Writer: A. David Lewis, Artist: Marvin Perry Mann, December 2005, ISBN: 1-932386-12-2, $17.95, 160 pages, full color, digest-sized); Robotika (Story and Art by Alex Sheikman, December 2005, 4-issue series, $3.95, 32-page comic book, full color, mature readers); and Iron Empires: Blood und Iron, (Story: Christopher Moeller, Art: Peter Bergting, 2006).